Wednesday, March 01, 2017

An Eritrean migrant who murdered a 55-year-old woman and her son in an Ikea because his asylum application had been rejected is requesting to serve his sentence in Eritrea after being threatened and beaten in multiple Swedish prisons.

The lawyer for 37-year-old Eritrean failed asylum seeker Abraham Ukbagabir requested that his client should be transferred to his native Eritrea after he had received threats and had been beaten multiple times by other inmates the Swedish prison system, Afton Bladetreports.

On August 10th 2015, Ukbagabir went to an Ikea in the central Swedish city of Västerås. Once in the shop, he proceeded to go to the kitchenware department and grab a knife, then without warning stabbed a 55-year-old woman and her 28-year-old son to death.

After stabbing the mother and her son, he then used the knife on himself attempting to commit suicide but was unsuccessful.

Mr. Ukbagabir had been rejected for asylum by the Swedish government only hours before the attack and was scheduled to be deported back to Italy, where he had first claimed asylum before travelling to Sweden. Ukbagabir had lived in Italy for several months working as a fisherman before leaving for Sweden.

During his trial, the Eritrean admitted to the attack as revenge for being rejected asylum but claimed he did not mean to kill his victims. His defence was soundly rejected by the court which sentenced him to life in prison to be followed by immediate deportation upon completion of the sentence.

One of the most recent incidents of violence toward Ukbagabir came last October when he was brutally beaten by inmates in Tidaholm prison. He was moved to the Tidaholm prison after being beaten in August 2016 at the Salberg Institution and has been in and out of solitary confinement due to threats to his safety.

The Swedish Justice Department for Criminal Cases and International Judicial Cooperation (BIRS) is currently looking into a possible transfer and will be contacting the Eritrean authorities on the matter. Both Sweden and Eritrea must approve the potential transfer.

The Europe Migrant crisis has seen crime rise in many countries, but the cases most well known have been murders carried out by asylum seekers. An illegal immigrant from Kenya brutally beat a 54-year-old cleaning lady to death with an iron bar while she was on her way to work late at night in 2016.

Perhaps the most notorious migrant murderer was a 17-year-old Afghan migrant who raped and killed asylum centre volunteer Maria Ladenburger. Though he had initially claimed to be a minor, a judge revealed earlier this month that the killer was actually an adult.